GLA chooses software to tackle illegal gangmasters

The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) has chosen Bristol-based software company, BOM Ltd, to supply an investigative software package that will be used to tackle illegal gangmasters. The powerful computer-based tool allows investigators to record, search, sort and view all information associated with an investigation.

As of October 1, 2006 it is an offence to provide casual labour to parts of the agriculture, horticulture and food/drink processing sectors without a licence. The GLA has been set up to administer the licensing system, and to identify and prosecute unlicensed suppliers. BOM is providing specialist software, known as Clue 2, to support efforts to crack down on illegal operators.

Clue 2 greatly reduces the administrative burden on investigating teams, allowing information to be inputted, retrieved and cross-referenced quickly. In turn, that means much less paperwork, and allows the investigating teams to spend more time ‘on the ground’, on the trail of illegal operators.

Jonathan Gahagan, a spokesman for BOM, said: “Everyone knows the problems that can be caused by unscrupulous casual labour providers, exploiting vulnerable workers. We are very pleased to be involved in the GLA`s efforts to deal with this. Clue 2 is ideally suited to the sort of investigations that will be conducted by the GLA teams and we are confident it will make a major contribution to the process of identifying and prosecuting unlicensed gangmasters.”